e, with a suggestion of his nature that makes
it a faithful transcript of his presence. It is a picture of him at 66
years of age. His strength overwhelmed people, and yet he was very
simple, easily affected by the misfortunes of others, direct in all his
impressions; but no one could take him by surprise, because his faith in
the eternal redemption of all trials was beyond the ways of the world.
His optimism was simple Christianity. He always said he believed there
was as great a number out of the Church as there was in it that followed
the teaching of Christianity. He was among the believers, with his
utmost energy alert to save and comfort the unbelievers. He believed in
everything and everyone. The ingenuousness of his nature was childlike
in its unchallenged faith and its tender instincts. His unworldliness
was almost legendary in its belief of human nature. I remember he was
asked once whether he believed in Santa Claus, and in his own beautiful
imagery he said:

"I believe in Santa Claus. Haven't I listened when I was a boy and
almost heard those bells on the reindeer; haven't I seen the marks in
the snow where the sleigh stopped at the door and old Santa jumped out?
I believed in him then and I believe in him now--believe that children
should be allowed to believe in the beautiful mythical tale. It never
hurt anyone, and I think one of the saddest memories of my childhood is
of a day when an older brother told me there was no Santa Claus. I
didn't believe him at first, and afterwards when I saw those delightful
mysterious bundles being sneaked into the house, way down deep in my
heart I believed that Santa Claus as well as my father and mother had
something to do with it."

In the last years of his life music became the greatest pleasure to Dr.
Talmage. An accumulation of work made it necessary for me to engage a
secretary. We were fortunate in securing a young lady who was an
exquisite pianist. In the evening she would play Liszt's rhapsodies for
the Doctor, who enjoyed the Hungarian composer most of all. He said to
me once that he felt as if music in his study, when he was at work,
would be a great inspiration. So my Christmas present to him that year
was a musical box, which he kept in his study.

The three months preceding our trip to Europe were spent in the usual
busy turmoil of social and public life. In truth we were very full of
our plans for the European tour, which was to be devoted to preaching by